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1 - Safety Inspection

This document discusses workplace inspections, checklists, and procedural audits. It explains that inspections are needed to identify hazards, review workplace standards, and provide a systematic means to control working conditions. Inspections must be used along with other safety systems like audits, training, and procedures. Checklists are a common inspection tool but must be tailored to each workplace and its unique hazards. Inspections should involve employees and be done regularly, with follow-up to ensure issues are addressed.
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0% found this document useful (0 votes)
172 views7 pages

1 - Safety Inspection

This document discusses workplace inspections, checklists, and procedural audits. It explains that inspections are needed to identify hazards, review workplace standards, and provide a systematic means to control working conditions. Inspections must be used along with other safety systems like audits, training, and procedures. Checklists are a common inspection tool but must be tailored to each workplace and its unique hazards. Inspections should involve employees and be done regularly, with follow-up to ensure issues are addressed.
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INSPECTIONS, CHECKLISTS & PROCEDURE AUDITS

A: INSPECTIONS
A1: OVERVIEW
This lecture provides a basic understanding of workplace inspections,
checklists and procedural audits. The lecture covers their advantages and
disadvantages, and explains how to formulate one's own inspection
procedure and procedural audit as part of the approach to accident
prevention.
Workplace Inspections: An inspection of a workplace aimed at identifying
hazards. The inspection should be performed with a checklist and be
periodically reviewed.

Workplace inspections on their own will not guarantee that a workplace is


free from hazards that may cause injury. They must be used in combination
with other occupational safety and health management systems for good
OSH performance.

A2: PURPOSE OF INSPECTIONS


Inspections are necessary to:
 Identify aspects of the working environment and work tasks that could
contribute to injury/damage and thus allow unacceptable conditions or
conduct to be addressed;
 Review workplace standards in accordance with legal and company
requirements; and
 Provide a systematic means, for those who are at risk of injury, to help
control the working conditions.

Inspections are an essential element in hazard reduction because issues must


be identified, assessed, fixed or reported. In this way hazards are reduced
and thus the workplace is safer. Inspections are only part of the hazard
control strategy. They are complemented by:

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 Plant and equipment audits;
 Task analysis and introduction of safety procedures;
 Control and monitoring of materials;
 Employee training; and
 Consultative procedures.

A3: SNAP SHOT APPROACH


Workplace inspections are an "a snap shot" of the processes and procedures
occurring at a workplace. In some cases spending 2 hours inspecting a work
area where the workplace operates 8 hours a day, 40 hours per week, 52
weeks a year can be ineffective particularly if the work processes are
variable. In most workplaces the work varies from day to day and, as a
result, this has an influence on the effectiveness of workplace inspections.
To overcome this hurdle workplace inspections should be regular and used
in combination with other tools (where applicable) such as:

 Systems audits;
 Job safety analysis;
 Consultative discussions;
 Tool box topics;
 Reviewing accident statistics and trends;
 Systems Safety;
 Hazard and Operability studies;
 Fault Tree Analysis; and the

A4: TUNNEL VISION


The purpose of workplace inspections is to identify those hazards to which
employees may be exposed, so that risks can be assessed and controlled
where necessary.
Persons conducting inspections can develop "tunnel vision" if the person
works in the same area he/she is inspecting. This phenomenon occurs due to
the familiarization of hazards in the workplace and results in the failure to
clearly identify hazards.

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Adequate training must be provided to overcome this problem. It may also
be good practice for inspecting to be done by someone from outside the
work area.

A5: RESPONSIBILITIES
Site Manager:
 Ensure that an effective, participative inspection process is developed
for each work group/area.
 Participate in the inspections on a regular basis.
 Ensure action plans and the follow-up process are completed.

Middle Managers/Supervisors:
 Ensure that the inspection process is implemented within the
respective work group.
 Participate in the development of inspection checklists for each area.
 Participate in inspections and ensure remedial action is prompt.
 Monitor recommended action to ensure resolution.

Employees:
 Participate in inspections and their development and implementation.
 Recommend practical solutions to identify risks.

A6: DEVELOP INSPECTION PROCEDURE


As a minimum, it is recommended that all facilities be inspected at least
once a month. Depending on the risks, the dynamics of the work and the
results of inspections and other factors, this may need increasing. The
inspection should not be by the same person each time but should be done
with the worker safety and health representative. Periodically, say quarterly,
the supervisor should conduct a separate assessment of the inspections.
To be an effective hazard reduction strategy, it is essential that inspections be
planned and systematic. This does not remove responsibility from each
employee to be vigilant in recognizing and correcting issues which they
believe may cause harm or damage.

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At the completion of each inspection, any deficiencies identified must be
noted on the summary sheet for action. A debriefing should then be
conducted with the area supervisor, who needs to resolve how and who will
be responsible for rectification and for notifying the safety and health
committee. Any issues that are identified as continuing must be reported to
the area manager and to the occupational safety and health committee.
It is the responsibility of each department to develop with their work teams
the most efficient manner in which such inspections will be performed. The
minimum requirement is that a written procedure for inspections is
developed which:

 Defines responsibility;
 Stipulates the frequency of inspections (which should be on a regular
basis);
 Gives precedence to consultation with worker safety and health
representatives;
 Recommends appropriate corrective action within specified
timeframes;
 Sets priorities for corrective action;
 Assigns personnel for corrective action;
 Provides feedback to the safety and health committee;
 Provides feedback to work groups; and
 Has a follow-up or review of corrective action.

B: CHECKLISTS
B1: DEVELOP INSPECTION CHECKLIST
Formulating a workplace inspections procedure and checklist is a difficult
task that requires a lot of research. Each workplace needs to define an
"ultimate" checklist that covers all identified hazards and details the
necessary procedures.

The general sample checklist provided at the end of the lecture satisfies the
above criteria but, because every workplace has unique and different

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hazards, you must also review the information in the References and Further
Reading section as well as the relevant standards, codes of practice and
legislation.

Key Point: It is essential you develop your own inspection procedure and
checklist.

B2: PROBLEMS AND BENEFITS OF CHECKLISTS


Key Point: Checklists should cover all potential hazards and therefore all
workplaces should develop their own checklists in line with hazards present
and areas where the accidents are occurring.

The checklist is a widely used instrument and is ideal as a starting point in


workplace inspections. There are numerous checklists provided in
occupational safety and health literature and predominantly there are two
different standard rating systems for describing hazards:

 Yes/no or satisfactory/unsatisfactory; and


 Scale system (poor - fair - good - very good - excellent, or 0-10).

The two rating systems should only be used if there are clear and specific
matters to be considered. These specific matters should relate to
occupational safety and health requirements such as Australian Standards,
codes of practice or regulations.

The problems with checklists are as follows:


 Checklists can be too detailed or provide little detail.
 Limited to the knowledge of the user.
 Follow-up action may be hard to detail.
 Checklists may be too general, e.g. a number of machines are to be
addressed in one area but there is only one section in the checklist on
plant/equipment.
 Questions may be poorly structured and provide little scope for
variation on controls.

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 Checklists vary according to the workplace due to different hazards
being present, e.g. checklist for fishing industry may be different to
the manufacturing sector.

The benefits of a checklist include:


 Systematic way of checking compliance.
 Controls can be instigated immediately.
 Record provided for future/previous audits.
 Compliance with legislation can be easy to check.

B3: USE WORK AREA SPECIFIC CHECKLISTS


Checklists should be developed for each work area. If an incident (either
injury, damage or near miss) is reported, a review of the checklist must be
undertaken to ensure that all necessary aspects are being checked.
A general checklist has been included at the end of this lecture. This should
be adapted to the particular needs of each work area and workgroup. Prior to
implementation, all checklists should be sighted and commented upon by the
departmental manager and the occupational safety and health specialist.
Checklists must be designed to be as specific as possible and require
responses that avoid judgments not reasonable for the person to make.
Checklists should be for functional work areas and be capable of being
completed within 15 minutes.

B4: EXAMPLE MAINTENANCE WORKSHOP INSPECTION


CHECKLIST
An inspection was made of a maintenance workshop using the following
checklist specially developed for that work area.

 Are the aisles clear of rubbish?


 Are the aisles clear of electrical leads?
 Is the machine adequately guarded?
 Adequate work space?
 Does the machine have an emergency stop?

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 Can the machine's energy source be isolated and be locked out during
repair, cleaning, and maintenance?
 Is the workplace adequately lit?
 Are workers adequately trained in the safe use of the machine?
(requires additional investigations)
 Is the floor surface regularly cleaned?
 Is wood dust adequately controlled?
 Are electrical leads in good condition?
 Are electrical leads tagged and maintained?
 Is the floor surface slip resistant?
 Is the noise exposure likely to exceed the action level?
 Are saw blades used that reduce the amount of noise?
 Are employees wearing hearing protection?
 Are employees wearing respiratory protection?
 Are employees wearing eye protection?
 Are safety signs displayed?
 Is pedestrian access delineated from work areas by white lines?
 Is a push stick used for cutting small pieces of wood?
 Is the height of the table appropriate (1015 mm height) for the
operator?
 Is the weight of the object being cut less than 16 kg?
 Is the object being cut more than 50 cm wide?
 Are there emergency procedures to follow in case of an accident or
fire?
 Is there an appropriate first aid kit nearby?
 Have the extinguishers been recently serviced?
 Are there adequate directions towards fire exits?

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